Wikipedia and WikiLeaks have a lot in common. They are both open and self-monitoring databases that operate on the idea that everyone and everything is fair game in the search for what they call truth, but what is actually just transparency. To get at the truth of the Afghanistan war, and whether it is worth it, one would have to see both sides of the story. And this transparency often comes at the cost of someone's privacy — something Sarah Palin found out when WikiLeaks published her emails from her personal account. To Assange, privacy is an accomplice to conspiracy, and should always be violated to shine a light on the lives of those in power.

The internet has certainly changed journalism. But whether or not Assange's crusade is the right one, he still relies on those profit-seeking media magnates who recognised that the war log would sell a lot of papers and who condensed the 91,000 documents into something that people would read.